


The Ocean Burned

by EmiAliceinWonderland



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Boys In Love, Established Relationship, Fluff, Holding Hands, M/M, Romance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, can u believe i listened to monster by kanye all the way through writing this, hand kink???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-15 21:01:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8072605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmiAliceinWonderland/pseuds/EmiAliceinWonderland
Summary: Ronan Lynch is so in love with Adam Parrish. That's all.





	

**Author's Note:**

> More fluff! I needed some fluff, and reading the chapter which inspired the title of this in TRK last night made me want to write something like this. I love the idea of badass Ronan being shy about having a ~boyfriend~.

Ronan Lynch has dreamed so often of Adam Parrish's hands and fingers - his knuckles, his palms, his wrists - that now they are _here,_ free for him to touch and stare at and worship as much as he wants, he doesn't quite know how to handle it.

When they first start dating Ronan is shy about it, shyer than he's ever been before. Only Adam knows this, because he refuses to show it around anyone else, refuses to let anyone know that the thought of holding a boy's hand in the streets makes his stomach twist with anxiety. It's Adam who is the confident one when it comes to public displays of affection, and Ronan is in awe of how brave this boy is in spite of everything he's been through.

Maybe, though, he is brave _because_ of what he's been through.

Ronan loves him for it. He loves him a lot but he hasn't said it yet.

It first happens the day after they make it official, they hold hands all night on their own in Ronan's childhood bedroom,  looking up at the ceiling together while they talk, two heads on one pillow, knees touching and toes brushing as they whisper to each other all night. They hold hands, Adam's long fingers twined fiercely with Ronan's. They talk about their secrets, their hardest nights, their worst moments, their biggest dreams, their families, their pasts, their favourite things, their horoscopes, their religious beliefs, everything under the sun and more. They talk about everything that night and hold hands the whole time as they fall deeper together.

Ronan and Adam are slipping into the warm anxiety of first love together until their eyelids are heavy and they fall asleep. _It happens slowly, and then all at once._

They haven't done anything more than kiss yet, and they both like it that way. Talking all night feels like the most intimate thing they could have done for two boys who find it so hard to speak about their feelings out loud. Ronan feels raw in a good way, and when he sees Adam after his shift at work that afternoon he immediately craves that physical contact of holding hands again. He feels whole when his hand is in Adam's.

Adam is beautiful in his work clothes, an overall from the garage tied around his waist, a t-shirt clinging to his arms and his chest, his dusty hair falling into his eyes slightly. Ronan is sitting in a booth at Nino's with Gansey and Blue, but it feels like he's fallen off the edge of a cliff when he sees Adam walk in through the door. He realises he's smiling uncontrollably, a stupid nervous smile that he would never normally let see the light of day. He quickly schools his face into his usual expression, but he knows Gansey and Blue noticed because they're both grinning at him.

Adam is grinning too because he knows he's the only one in the whole world who can get such a shy smile out of _Ronan Lynch._

God, he is in too deep.

"Hey, loser," he says when Adam sits down, trying to counteract just how lovesick he might look. It's as though now that he doesn't have to hide his feelings from Adam anymore he can't hide them from _anyone._ The floodgates are open and his heart wants _everyone_ to know that Adam Parrish is his. 

"Hey," Adam says back with a smile, whilst he gives Blue and Gansey a wave. He tilts his head to ask Ronan to scoot up on his side of the booth. Ronan shuffles to the left, but not as much as he would if someone else was sitting next to him. Adam doesn't mind. His thigh is warm next to Ronan's and without hesitation, without a blush, or a glance, or a second thought he reaches to Ronan's lap to take his hand.

Blue smiles again, and Gansey raises his eyebrows before Adam begins a casual conversation with them, asking about their days, talking about work.

Ronan quietly dies whilst the world goes on around him.

Adam's hand is warm around his, and every so often whilst he's talking he mindlessly brushes his thumb over Ronan's knuckles. Like it's nothing, like casual affection comes so easily to him despite everything. Ronan tries hard to keep his mouth closed, instead of gaping, tries to not let Adam feel his hand shaking slightly, and his palm sweating. Adam squeezes his hand when their order of pizza comes and the waitress looks at their twined fingers. She doesn't say anything, and Adam squeezes lightly once more as if to say " _See, it's fine, we're normal"._

Ronan expects Adam to drop his hand when they start eating, but he doesn't, he moves their joined palms so they're resting on Adam's thigh. He rips pizza slices with one hand, his thumbs automatically sweeping across the back of Ronan's hand.

Ronan quietly dies for the second time that evening.

When they've finished their meal and Ronan's heartbeat is a little more normal he squeezes Adam's hand back. Adam is telling a joke, and it's funny, and the other two are laughing a lot, and Ronan's laughing too but somehow the room around him goes fuzzy and soft and quiet and his heart clenches once more as he focuses in on Adam's happy, smiling face. He wants this boy to always be happy. He wants it so much.

Without really thinking about it, Ronan, feeling like he is floating in a dream, made more confident in affection by a whole hour of holding hands in public with a boy in front of his friends and a café full of strangers, brings his and Adam's intertwined palms up to his mouth, and presses a lingering kiss onto the back of his boyfriend's hand.

His heart stutters. Adam stares at him. The ocean burns.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Spot the John Green quote? ;)


End file.
